Fingernail decorating

ABSTRACT

Fingernails are decorated by coating fingernails with a first fingernail polish color and placing dots of a second color on the first color. Dots are placed on the first color by holding a second color nail polish on a pointed applicator and momentarily touching the point of the applicator to the fingernails in spaced position and flowing a controlled amount of second color polish onto the fingernail surface during the momentary touching of the point to the nail. The polka dot effect is also achieved by transferring predetermined polka dots of opaque coating to a uniformly spread polish of a contrasting color.

United States Patent 1191 Hicks 1 1 FINGERNAIL DECORATING (76] lnventor: Carolyn Colburn Hicks, 5789 Kalanianaole Hwy, Honolulu, Hawaii 96821 221 Filed: Dec. 12,1972

21 App1.No.:3l4,422

2,504,677 4/1950 Fraser et a1 132/73 a [451 May 27, 1975 2,864,384 12/1958 Walter ..l32/73 Primary ExaminerG. E. McNeil] Attorney, Agent, or Firm-James C. Wray [57] ABSTRACT Fingernails are decorated by coating fingernails with a first fingernail polish color and placing dots of a sec and color on the first color. Dots are placed on the first color by holding a second color nail polish on a pointed applicator and momentarily touching the point of the applicator to the fingernails in spaced position and flowing a controlled amount of second color polish onto the fingernail surface during the momentary touching of the point to the nail. The polka dot effect is also achieved by transferring predetermined polka dots of opaque coating to a uniformly spread polish of a contrasting color.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures FINGERNAIL DECORATING BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Fingernails have been decorated by uniformly spreading colored coatings over the surface of nails. Conventionally, fingernail polish brushes are mounted in bottle caps, and bristles are held suspended in the coating material. No form of nail polish applicator is known at this time which is intended for use in applying carefully delineated decorations over discrete surfaces of fingernails. No known form of body adornment employs a first body member coating followed by a second contrasting coating in a particular design.

Applicators constructed integrally with bottle caps are widely known. Examples are brush type applicators mounted in caps such as used in paste jars and in nail polish vials. Glass rod type applicators with enlarged fire polished ends are also known to be mounted in bottle caps. Examples of cap mounted rod type applicators are found in antiseptic bottles and in perfume vials. Glass rod applicators are intended to carry very small amounts of liquid from containers to body members and to disperse the small quantities of liquid over a general area in an uncontrolled manner.

Transfer sheets carrying designs are well known, and it is a common practice for children to transmit designs from a backing sheet to their bodies as temporary ersatz tattoos. Forms of transfer sheets and decalcomanias are well known in which a backing sheet has a smooth release coating which loosely adheres to design elements which are printed or otherwise deposited on the backing sheet. Pressure sensitive adhesive is printed or otherwise deposited on the design elements. In some cases, the entire assembly may be overlaid by a second release sheet contacting the pressure sensitive adhesive areas. When the second sheet is removed, the adhesive is exposed. Pressing the first carrier sheet, the design elements and the adhesive against an object with the adhesive side toward the object with a good degree of force and then lifting the carrier sheet results in the design element being fixed to the body and being released from the carrier sheet. Pressure sensitive adhesives, release coatings, and carrier sheets and decorative coatings such as lacquers and enamels are well known for such devices. No such devices have been used in body adornment and particularly in fingernail decorating where a particular design is applied over a contrasted base covering.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a fingernail decorating method and apparatus for applying visually contrasted polka dots over a preliminary contrasted covering on fingernails. In the broadest aspect of the invention, a contrasting color design is applied over discrete areas of a uniformly spread coating on fingernails.

In a first embodiment, an initial of fingernail polish is uniformly spread with a brush type applicator. After the first coating has dried, polka dots are applied by dipping the pointed applicator is a second contrasting coating material and by momentarily touching the point of the applicator to the surface of the first coating.

As an alternative, designs. especially polka dots, may be formed with a coating material on a backing sheet having a release coating. Adhesive material is applied over the coating material, and if desired, a removable sheet may be applied over the adhesive.

When the removable sheet is withdrawn, the adhesive material is placed on a polished fingernail, and pressure is applied to the back of the carrier sheet, transferring the design polka dots to the fingernail.

One object of this invention is the provision of fingernail coating methods and apparatus for uniformly spreading a first decorative coating over surfaces of fingernails and subsequently applying decorative polka dots to the surface of the fingernails.

Another object of this invention is the provision of applicator apparatus for fingernail polishing comprising a first bottle with a cap-mounted brush applicator and a second bottle for containing a contrasting polish with a cap-mounted pointed applicator for creating dots.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a polka dotting nail polishing method which comprises uniformly coating fingernails with a first color polish and then applying polka dots of a contrasting material.

These and other objects and features of the invention are apparent in the disclosure, which includes the ongoing and foregoing specification with the claims, and the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a detail showing nail polish containers in a cutaway holder and cap-mounted brush and point applicators for first brushing on material from one container and then dotting material from another container.

FIG. 1A is a detail of pointed applicators applying some dots to a fingernail.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of carrier sheets which hold contrasting coating material for application over a base coat of nail polish.

FIG. 3 is a detail of the sheet carried designs shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a detail of application of designs to a fingernail area.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With reference to FIG. 1, a hand is generally represented by the numeral 1. Fingernails 4 on digits 2 are decorated by base coats of nail polish 6, over which are laid polka dots 8.

A holder 10 holds bottles 12 and 14 of nail polish of different colors. For example, one bottle may hold a red nail polish, and the other bottle may hold a white nail polish. Holder l0 joins both bottles, so that they will always be available for use together and so that they can be conveniently marketed.

A brush type applicator 16, which is associated with bottle 12, has a medial bottle cap 18 for tightly sealing bottle 12 and a brush 20, which extends into bottle 12 in the manner of conventional nail polish applicators.

Applicator 22, which is associated with bottle 14, has a bottle cap 24 medially mounted on a long shaft, which has a handle at one end and a shaft 26, which terminates in a point 28. When bottle 14 is capped, shaft 26 and point 28 are submerged in polish within the bottle. When cap 24 is removed from the bottle and applicator 22 is withdrawn, shaft 26 and point 28 hold a quantity of nail polish. The particular amount of nail polish held by shaft 26 may be controlled by scraping the shaft along the neck of the bottle as the shaft is withdrawn. Alternatively, the point 28 may be touched to the inside of the neck of the bottle to release some of the polish held on shaft 26 and to return that polish back into the container.

In a first step, applicator 16 is removed from bottle 12, and a nail polish 6 is uniformly applied to nails 4 with brush 20. After nail polish 6 has dried, or while it is slightly tacky, applicator 22 is removed from bottle 14, and point 28 is momentarily touched to portions of the nails and is quickly withdrawn, leaving perfect polka dots.

The forming of the polka dots is shown in the enlarged detail of FIG. 1A. After fingernail 4 has been uniformly coated, finger 2 is held steady while point 28 is touched to the fingernail. Polish 29 flows downward along shaft 26 and point 28. The applicator is immediately withdrawn, as shown at 26', and as point 28' moves from the coating material, a perfectly formed dot 8 results.

An alternate form of decorating fingernails is shown in FIG. 2. A group 30 of strips 32 carrier material are packaged together. Designs in the forms of dots 34 with adhesive coatings are temporarily attached to the backing strips 32.

As shown in FIG. 3, backing strip 32 has a release coating 36, on top of which designs, such as dots 34, are deposited. Adhesive 38 is deposited atop the design elements 34, by any convenient well known method such as printing. A cover sheet may be provided over the adhesive 38.

As shown in FIG. 4, after any cover sheet is removed,

sheet 32 are held steady, pressure is applied to dots 34 through the backing sheet 32 by stick 44. After the pressure has been applied, the backing sheet is lifted, and the decorative dots 34 remain affixed to fingernail While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be obvious that several modifications of the invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is precisely defined only in the following claims.

I claim:

1. Fingernail coating apparatus comprising a first container, first fingernail coating material in the first container, a spreading applicator associated with the first container for spreading the first coating material over a fingernail, a second coating container means for holding a second liquid coating material, second liquid coating material in said second container means, applying means connected on the second coating holder means for applying the second coating material form the holder means to the fingernail, wherein the applying means comprises a cap-mounted shaft with a point immersed in the liquid for holding the liquid second coating material on a wall of the shaft when transferring the second coating material to the fingernail upon touching the point to the fingernail. 

1. Fingernail coating apparatus comprising a first container, first fingernail coating material in the first container, a spreading applicator associated with the first container for spreading the first coating material over a fingernail, a second coating container means for holding a second liquid coating material, second liquid coating material in said second container means, applying means connected on the second coating holder means for applying the second coating material form the holder means to the fingernail, wherein the applying means comprises a cap-mounted shaft with a point immersed in the liquid for holding the liquid second coating material on a wall of the shaft when transferring the second coating material to the fingernail upon touching the point to the fingernail. 